My passion for flight got me into radio controlled airplanes, a pilot's license and employment at a prestigious company; I can't complain!

I've been at play since '89 at the most successful flight simulator manufacturer in the world, CAE inc, in Montreal, Quebec. It really isn't work, but lots of playing around with hardware, software and big expensive toys. It would not have been so if not for the help of Gilles Primeau. We had met when he heard of my RPV project through a colleague of his, also a member of my club, WIMAC. My CV he pushed at CAE landed me a job.

Model airplanes were a lot of fun for some 20 years; Michael and I mostly built from scratch aircraft carrier airplanes [F9F, F4, F14, A7...]; tail hooks for arresting, wing mounted explosive rockets, countless flat spins (some into ground), flew empty 1 gallon nitro gas cans on the back of a 707, then a 12 inch plastic horse, cameras, video transmitters, you name it. Eventually the messy oil in the nitro-methane fuel mixture not only compromised the balsa wood, but our spirit; We quit for good. Electrics drew us back!

I miss tossing a Cessna about the sky; everything is so real, cranking the engine, dash and fuselage shudder as it comes to life, welcomed prop blast kicks up the hinged windows on a hot summer day. It's been a long time, perhaps I'll return.

The story of the RPVs

Michael's scratched built F117 Stealth

Frankenstein foam F15 kit movie

My F14 Tomcat with swing wings and tail hook

Mark's clever F14 balade

My F4 kit doing carrier landings

Rocket Busters!

F18 taxiway/carrier landing

Simulators in Dubai

Ilyushin 76 "Candida" south of Dubai

One of many home made cardboard Star Wars things, when I was a teenager.